Re: #PC Definition

Stan Newton (newtonjs@vnet.net)
Wed, 2 Nov 94 11:54:54 EST

Peter Flynn said in private message:

>#PCDATA is <em>permitted</em>
>to contain markup, but doesn't <em>have</em> to: CDATA and SDATA must
>not contain markup.
>

Very confusing still!

Consider:
<!ELEMENT TITLE - - (#PCDATA)>

Dan Connolly said (10/27) in his response to my earlier inquiry..

>It _is_ valid to say:
>
> <title> Kurt G&ouml;del's Writings </title>
>
>[And not only is it valid, but the &ouml; is recognized as
>an entity reference...]
>
>It's _not_ valid to say
>
> <title> Really <em>Neato</em> stuff! </title>

This kind of clarification is what I was after. But, it still
seems like we simultaneously include and exclude markup with this
definition. The content of <TITLE></TITLE> is allowed to have #PCDATA which
can include tags by your definition above. However, no acceptable tags are
defined within content so they are all excluded. So why do we use #PCDATA as
the text type in the first place instead of something more restrictive? Is
it required in order to get the entity reference expansion? CDATA would mean
that the content would be taken literally, no expansion. Correct?
Stan Newton
Newton Computing Solutions